US congratulates Türkiye on Sunday's ‘peaceful’ elections

WASHINGTON

The US has congratulated the Turkish people on holding “peaceful” nationwide presidential and parliamentary polls on Sunday.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on Monday said the Biden administration lauds “the Turkish people for expressing their desires at the ballot box in a peaceful way.”

“President (Joe) Biden is looking forward to working with whoever the (presidential race) winner is. And again, that's not clear right now,” he told reporters during a virtual briefing, noting it “certainly looks like” there will be a runoff between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his main rival in the presidential race, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

“The Turkish people get to decide what their government looks like, and they obviously took their citizenship seriously here by going to the ballot box, and we'll just have to see how it plays out,” he added.

Türkiye will hold a second-round runoff on May 28 to elect the president after no candidate won an outright majority in Sunday's poll, the head of the nation’s election authority announced on Monday.

The first round of voting ended with no candidate able to clear the required 50% threshold, but incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took the lead, said Ahmet Yener, head of the Supreme Election Council, citing unofficial results.

Voter turnout in Sunday’s elections was 88.92%, with turnout from Turkish citizens abroad at 52.69%, Yener said.

Data entry continues for 35,874 ballots cast abroad, he noted.

Erdogan finished the first round with 49.51% of the vote, with Kilicdaroglu second at 44.88%, Yener said.

Sinan Ogan of the ATA (Ancestral) Alliance got 5.17%, while Muharrem Ince, who withdrew from the presidential race late last week after ballots had already been printed, got 0.44%, Yener added.

Kirby added: “It was certainly good to see the Turkish people come out and vote, and have their voices heard.”